Who misses straight on placekickers?

[foreverfree]

Closer to the topic, I'm sorry I didn't (and am surprised someone else didn't) mention pro football's first soccer style PK, Pete Gogolak.

He played for the Bills (in the AFL) and Giants and you can read his story in a book about the AFL called Going Long, I forget the author, Jeff something I think.

John

 

[devans]

Thanks for the replies. I didn't know about Moorman. I think it is very odd that he has ended up a Punter. Does a teenager playing football dream of being an NFL punter one day? Particularly one that ends up being one of the fastest men in the NFL. I doubt it. What kind of a School coach takes their fastest player and has him punt while slower kids are playing defensive back or receiver. Perhaps he switched later in College. I guess he played another position as well as punter - but later dropped it. A bit like Randall Cuningham in reverse. Perhaps he didn't relish the physical side of the game, or perhaps he was "encouraged" to be a kicker?

 

[white is right]

He might have been a track guy in school(highschool)who just punted. My highschool had a guy who was the kicker who didn't want to do anything else because he was afraid of getting injured and he was built like an animal(6' 220). He was a fringe hockey prospect and didn't want to get injured so he didn't play the line.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

I remember when Jim Bakken kicked 7 field goals in a game against the Steelers. That was an NFL record, and I think it still is.


One of the few ways football players from the present and past can be fairly compared is kicking accuracy. The soccer style kickers are a lot more accurate than the straight-on kickers were.

Bakken now shares that record with Rich Karlis who did it barefoot on November 5, 1989, Chris Boniol, who hit 7 on November 18, 1996, and Billy Cundiff, who did it on September 15, 2003.

 

[Don Wassall]

Rob Bironas of Tennessee broke the record with 8 on 10/21/07.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Here are some articles that talk about some of the last straight on kickers.

http://www.post-gazette.com/steelers/20020522steele0522p3.asp

http://www.studyofsports.com/?p=2436

It looks like the Redskins' Steve Cox kicked the last straight on kicks in an NFL game on September 13, 1987 against the Eagles. He kicked 3 extra points during the game and a 40 yard field goal in the fourth quarter after the regular kicker was injured.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/198709130was.htm

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Rob Bironas of Tennessee broke the record with 8 on 10/21/07.

Wow, the article I looked at was really old then. Thanks for the update, Don! It is interesting that of the 6 regular season NFL field goals over 60 yards the first two were kicked by straight on kickers, Dempsey's 63 yarder in 1970 and Steve Cox' 60 yarder in 1984.

 

[Don Wassall]

I like how Tom Dempsey's 63 yarder, which was a game winner by the kicker with only half a kicking foot,still stands after all these years, tied just once, by Jason Elam in '98. One of the coolest records in the NFL.

 

[Cassiodorus]

I like how Tom Dempsey's 63 yarder, which was a game winner by the kicker with only half a kicking foot, still stands after all these years, tied just once, by Jason Elam in '98.  One of the coolest records in the NFL. 

I remember a quote from Alex Karras, something like "They brought him out and we thought it was hysterical. We laughed for 62 yards."

Didn't Paul Hornung have a single-season scoring record which he captured by doing the place-kicking?

 

[backrow]

Dempsey's kick - video

 

[DWFan]

I am in the Titans' market and got to saw the Bironas record-setter. It was probably the most exciting Titans game I ever saw.

 

[Kiwi]

Just for comparison, here is the longest recorded place kick in a rugby match - 70 yards 8 inches by Paul Thorburn in 1986!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTtTbcfwCMA

 

[Don Wassall]

Dempsey's kick - video

I like how the one official jumps in the air as he signals that the kick is good.

 

[Electric Slide]

It's hard to tell from the video, but where there no tees back then? Have they ever been able to us tees for FG attempts in NFL games, or have they always been prohibited? And does anyone know what year NCAA banned tees? I'm sure the field-goal records could be a couple yards longer if they could still use them. It's funny seeing the old college games (from the 80s and before) with tees and the wide goal posts. I wish they would go back to that, as it helped put the "foot" in football.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

I don't think tees were allowed for FGs or PATs in the NFL even then. I'm not sure they were ever allowed in that league. The NCAA banned tees in 1988. There were also changes to the width of the goalposts and hash marks in the NFL and college between the 1970s and 1990s that affected kicking.

 

[jaxvid]

I remember the Dempsey kick very well. The Lions had seem to have won the game and me and some of my friends were watching the last seconds of the game while getting ready to go outside to play football. It had been raining and we were anticipating a "mud game" one of those games where we would play tackle until the field was a pile of muck and then we would go out and slosh around in it. We hung around to watch the desperation kick and were as shocked as everyone else when he made it. It depressed us all like only kids can be when the home team loses suddenly like that.